Foundations Of Daoist Meditation

This short lecture is designed to help you understand why you focus on the abdomen in "Daoist" meditation. It describes the early ideas and concepts related to such belly breathing techniques. The lecture also covers the essence of Lao Zi's teachings which go hand in glove with early "Daoist" meditation.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Sean Ramson and welcome to this short lecture on the essence of Daoism and what Lao Zi discovered.

Sometimes in order to develop our meditation to higher levels,

We need to understand the history,

Origins,

And the culture where the meditation that we are practicing came from.

It is important to understand that in Chinese there are two Daoisms.

The first is called Dao Jia,

Which means Daoist philosophy,

And the second is called Dao Jia O,

Which means Daoist religion.

Daoist philosophy is actually Lao Zi's Daoism that came from the Tao Te Jing.

The Daoist religion is what I will call a combination religion.

What I mean by this is that it is a religion combined with elements of ancestor worship,

Local religious ideas,

Some philosophical Daoism,

Chinese medicine,

Shamanistic practices,

A very large and varied pantheon of gods and ghosts,

Confucianism,

And various tantric like ideas and practices.

Everything that I will describe from now on is to do with Daoist philosophy.

Lao Zi said the Tao is something that cannot be described with language.

Ironically though,

He still wrote a book about it.

So if we were to make a riddle based on Lao Zi's writings about the Tao,

It would be as follows.

I am something that existed before heaven,

Earth,

And the gods.

I am in everything.

If you call me A,

Then I am not B.

If you call me B,

Then I am not A.

Actually,

I have no name.

I am something so subtle you can't see me,

Hear me,

Or taste me.

The question is,

What am I?

The answer to this riddle is emptiness,

Which is also the very fabric of this universe.

The Tao was also described as Lao Zi,

As manifesting as nature itself.

Therefore,

It is also the natural law.

The Tao is also Lao Zi's teachings,

Which aim to teach one primary core concept,

Which is Wu Wei or Wu Bu Wei.

For humans,

The Tao is Wu Wei,

And therefore we are told by Lao Zi that no matter what we do as humans,

We must always come back to the concept of Wu Wei.

I'll explain in a minute what Wu Wei actually means.

So in summary,

Through Lao Zi's teachings,

We find that the Tao falls into three categories.

Number one,

It means emptiness.

Number two,

It is nature and the natural law.

Number three,

It is Wu Wei or Wu Bu Wei.

So these three cover that which everything came from according to Chinese philosophy,

Which is Tian,

The universe,

Ren,

Man,

Di,

Earth.

The Tao made the one,

The one made the two,

The two made the three,

And the three made everything.

This comes from the idea that the Tao made the Tai Chi Tu.

The Tai Chi Tu is what we call the Yin Yang symbol.

We actually call that incorrectly the Yin Yang symbol.

So the Tao made the one,

The Tai Chi symbol.

The one made the two,

Which is the Yin and Yang within the Tai Chi symbol.

The two made the three,

Heaven,

Man,

And Earth,

And the three made everything.

This you will also find in the Book of Changes and the I Ching,

Where you start off with the Tao at the essence of everything,

Then you have a one solid line,

Then you split that solid line,

It becomes two,

And then you combine those to make three,

And the three make all the other hexagrams.

So the question as previously mentioned is what does Wu Wei actually mean?

At its essence,

Achieving Wu Wei in life is finding the Tao within yourself,

And should therefore be the aim of your life according to Lao Zi.

The entire Tao Te Ching,

If you read it carefully,

Is divided into Yin Yang paragraph and sentences.

Therefore Wu Wei always needs to be accompanied by its other half,

Which is Wu Bu Wei.

So by using Wu Wei,

You can do anything.

The Wu of Wu Wei comes from an ancient Chinese concept called Wu Ji,

Which means the ultimate emptiness.

The Wei of Wu Wei means action,

Therefore the correct translation of Lao Zi's core philosophy,

Wu Wei or Wu Bu Wei,

Is with the use of emptiness,

You can do anything.

So how does one actually do this in daily life?

How do we use emptiness in action?

I have six examples for you.

The first one is less interference.

This means letting things take their natural course.

Don't interfere with other people's lives.

Be less controlling and instead more guiding.

Number two,

Live more simply.

A simple life always brings about less agitations and less cravings.

Number three,

Less desire.

Having less desire only leads to needing less and less.

Number four,

Following nature's way.

Follow the seasons.

Eat the foods that are produced in that season.

Follow the circadian rhythm.

Sleep correctly with the sun cycles.

Live life as naturally as you possibly can.

Number five,

According to Lao Zi and the idea of Wu Wei and the idea of Tao,

Means that when you meditate you should put your focus on the abdomen in order to empty your mind.

Have you noticed when you don't overthink how easy it is to do everything?

Number six,

Non-reaction.

Don't react to traffic.

Don't react to somebody cutting you off.

Don't react or focus on the pain that you may have somewhere in your body.

The more you put your awareness into something,

The more agitated it becomes.

The entire Dao Te Ching is based on examples like I have just mentioned where they explain how to use Wu Wei in everyday life.

As we know that Taoist meditation is primarily based on focusing on the abdomen or focusing on what is now known as the Dan Tian.

We need to take a look at what is the Dan Tian.

In Lao Zi's time there was no such thing as the Dan Tian.

It was simply called the abdomen.

We know this from Zen Buddhism which got hold of early Taoist concepts.

In Zen Buddhism we find that the area where the Dan Tian was is called Hakka,

Which means abdomen.

Sometimes it appears that Zen Buddhism is more Taoist than Chinese Chan Buddhism.

This is probably due to it receiving Buddhism at an early stage in Chinese history when Taoism was still prevalent and Japan was isolated from the rest of the world.

Personally,

I feel the closest thing to Taoism in the modern world is Zen Buddhism.

The abdomen in Taoism was seen as an embryo within the human body,

A place where the Wu of the Wu Wei resided.

Wu means emptiness.

It was by focusing on this Wu,

The emptiness,

Or the Dan Tian,

Or the abdomen that Chi would descend away from the mind down into the abdomen to give clarity and peace.

A further description of this can be found in the Tai Chi Jing,

Also known as the embryo breathing classic.

In ancient China the mind and the heart were one and the same character called Xin.

What's interesting about this is for every organ in the human body except for the heart,

On the left of the Chinese character was the character for moon,

Which also meant flesh.

What this meant was that the mind and the heart were seen as something non-tangible.

This idea permeated all Chinese thinking.

Within the heart slash mind resided the Shen,

Which means spirit.

This is hard to translate.

In its Yin aspect,

Or tangible aspect,

It is somebody's complexion.

In its Yang aspect,

It can be loosely translated as someone's aura.

Not in the sense of glowing or being seen,

But the feeling someone gives off to the world.

In Chinese medicine,

Nearly all issues with the mind,

Or this Shen,

Are treated from the heart.

A good example is insomnia.

From a biological point of view,

Blood quality and its free flow play a vital role in mind health.

Issues with the brain,

On the other hand,

Are normally treated from the kidney within Chinese medicine or the body as a whole.

The heart is represented by fire,

While the kidney is represented as water.

In China,

They are not elements though,

Which is different to India.

They represent movements.

Fire goes up and out,

Metal drops to the ground,

Water drops downward and seeps in,

Wood grows up.

Earth is the pivot for this cycle.

The earliest Taoist meditation was focusing on the breath and the abdomen.

To do this,

One had to put the Yi,

Which means the mind or intent,

Into the abdomen.

This meant that the heart fire was put underneath the kidney water so there can be steam.

The character for Qi is a symbol of steam coming off rice.

The abdomen was seen as the engine room of the entire body and therefore called the Sea of Qi.

The opposite spot on the back was called the Mingmen or life's gate.

By putting the mind in the abdomen,

It was believed that the energy room of the body would be tonified.

Hence Taoism's primary goal at the end was longevity.

If you put the mind in the abdomen,

You also create an anchor for the mind.

This is why nearly all tranquilizing herbs in Chinese medicine are either minerals,

Bones or shells.

All of them are heavy substances.

They were meant to anchor the heart fire so it would meet the kidney water.

In other words,

Bring the fire into the abdomen.

The question is,

What makes heart fire pathogenic or not stay within the abdomen?

The answer is anger,

Over excitement,

Over thinking,

Holding the breath when lifting weights,

Sleeping late,

An excessive amount of physical movement,

Over sweating or in other words,

Stimulants.

So we could sum up philosophical Taoism as follows.

The Tao represents emptiness.

The emptiness in Chinese is called Wu.

Its functions via Wu Wei or Wu Pei.

This same emptiness produced Yin and Yang,

Which is the law of duality that the natural world adheres to.

Yin and Yang therefore produce everything.

The goal of a Taoist was therefore to live by the principles of Wu Wei,

Which means having a simple desire for your life where you do not interfere with the natural order of things and you meditate daily on the abdomen to achieve or find the Tao,

Wu or emptiness inside of you.

Reviews

Shaun's abiliity to combine academic rigour and spiritual understanding is a gift. I come back to his talks often. Thanks Shaun

Thank you, very interesting, will listen more. ☀️🙏

Very interesting thank you Namaste 🙏🏻

Very interesting information. Thank you! 🙏

Thanks! Great explanation of the basis of Taoist meditation and philosophy. Understanding some of the origin of Taoism is helpful to my practice.

Thank you for this Informative and helpful talk. I will re-listen.

Extremely informative. Will re-listen again! Thank you...🙏🏻

Perfect 👌 thank you